RSR Press Release - adriancollier/demo GitHub Wiki

Akvo RSR is an online Open Source Reporting and Visualisation platform for entering and following Development Projects being Initiated and Implemented throughout the world.

The Trusted Partner Network of Akvo RSR ensures that each addition to the platform has been performed by a known person who is working within the Akvo Community, and guarantees quality of content throughout.

Akvo RSR is the headline product in the Akvo Suite of tools, consisting of Akvo RSR, Akvo FLOW, Akvopedia and OpenAid. The combination of these tools provides Organisations with a considerable improvement in the End to End Transparency of Development Aid spending and collaboration effort between Partners.

In order to utilise the services of Akvo RSR, an Organisation must first comply with the rules http://www.akvo.org/web/partner_rules. Once an Organisation is registered and entered into the system, then their users can begin to use the Akvo RSR platform.

Organisations are given their own custom Partner Site within Akvo RSR that presents a sub-set of Projects which are directly related to the Organisation. The Partner Site itself can be custom styled to integrate directly within the Organisation’s own website or can be used as the primary website for the Organisation’s activities.

Projects can be loaded into the system via the Akvo RSR Admin User Interface, via a JQUERY API call, or by completing a PDF form and delivering this to the Partner Support Team. Project Content can include Images,Videos and Supporting Documentation; all of which can be uploaded directly or embedded into the Project Page, visible to the general public.

Once the Project is entered, it becomes visible on the web, and can be seen, Followed or Liked via several of the most popular Social Media sites by the general public. Any member of the Akvo Community can also post comments on the Project which will appear on the Project Page.

As the Project Develops, users from the Organisation can post Updates including embedded Photo and Video content to the Project Page updating on the progress. These updates can be delivered directly from the Akvo RSR Project Page, via the Akvo RSR Admin UI, by SMS Messaging or via the Akvo RSR Mobile App.

Project Updates can be freeform allowing the user to enter continuous text with supporting media, or alternatively the user can choose from one of the predefined Update Formats, which provide fields for items within the Project to be amended, such as Budgets, Predicted Dates or Expenditure when required. At the end of the Project, the Organisation is required to enter a Final Update which updates the key milestones of the Project and allows for the actual dates and amounts to be entered showing the reality of the Project’s success.

Organisations have access to Analytic Data on their Partner Site and their individual Project Pages to track traffic and activity utilising Google Analytics as the web interface for this.

There is also an online Reporting Tool available for Partners to actively query the Akvo RSR Database and pull information related to Project Performance. This Reporting Tool, considerably reduces the level of Reporting that individual Organisations need to provide, especially those working within Corsortia with other Organsiations on a group of Projects, such as a Consortium.

Once Organisations have entered their Project Information into Akvo RSR, these details are automatically included within the Akvo IATI Data Set and exported into the Akvo Open Aid data stream. This provides the benefit for Organisations to be able to confirm their data is in an IATI Compatible format - a prerequisite for End to End Transparency that is so important within the Development Sector right now.

Should the publication of this data not be enough for Organisations, then they can also obtain a copy of their data in the IATI Compatible XML Format directly from Akvo RSR via download on the site, or via the API exchange so that they can publish this in any way they choose.

In addition to the core Project and Reporting functionality, Akvo RSR also comes packed with a set of additional Sharing and Visualisation tools that can be utilised by Partners to spread the word about the work they are doing.

The first of these come in the form of Widgets which can be embedded into any website containing Individual Project Information, Lists of Projects or Maps. These Widgets can be customised to display in suitable colours for the environment they will be placed into.

Akvo RSR also provides Media RSS Feeds for Project, Campaigns and Organisations that communicate when changes or updates are created in the system.

The Akvo RSR Mobile App provides all of the core functionality of Akvo RSR, including Project Maintenance, Project Updates, User Administration, Social Media Sharing and Reporting. The User Interface has been designed especially for a smaller screen with easy to navigate process paths and touch-screen friendly buttons.

The Akvo Team continuously reports and provides updates on the activity of Akvo RSR and its Partner Network via an Integrated Blog page, Twitter and Facebook. This gives the public total visibility on the progress and improvement cycles and workflow of the product.

Utilising modern mapping techniques, Projects, Organisations and Campaigns can be visualised within the system on a variety of map backgrounds and types. This functionality has been extended by the integration of Akvo FLOW which provides field reporting and surveys using a Mobile App “in the field”. These surveys include GPS and Images from the locations which can be populated in maps. By layering the different Akvo FLOW surveys along with Project Location information, the full impact of the Akvo Partner Network can be visualised.

The core User Interface for Akvo RSR is currently available in 4 different languages - English, Dutch, French and Spanish. By working with existing partners, this capacity is being grown organically to include additional Interface languages that are required by Partners. In addition, the Project Content of Akvo RSR can be translated into any language automatically with the use of Google Translate.

Akvo RSR is developed under an Open Source GPL, allowing developers from anywhere in the world to see the code that is written and even contribute to the coding effort, with the codebase and Issue Tracking material all being available on Github at https://github.com/akvo/akvo-rsr.

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